[Zope] How? ZServer + PCGI

Amos Latteier amos@aracnet.com
Mon, 14 Jun 1999 22:18:24 -0700


At 09:52 PM 6/14/99 -0600, you wrote:
>I have an existing pcgi setup and want to start using ZServer as well. I
>just don't how to get them both running.

Look at ZServer/INSTALL.txt and ZServer/README.txt

Also try the ZServer start script:

  $ python1.5.2 z2.py -h

>The  Zope 2 INSTALL.txt says:
>
> * You can use PCGI and an existing web server if you use ZServer.
>
>How? Do you:
>
>python w_pcgi.py or wo_pcgi.py?
>start ZServer with what args?

w_pcgi.py will compile the PCGI wrapper which you will need unless you are
using mod_pcgi or already have it compiled.

The basic idea of using PCGI and ZServer is this:

browser <--HTTP--> webserver <--CGI--> pcgi wrapper <--PCGI--> ZServer

Basically using PCGI with ZServer is exactly like using PCGI normally,
except for the fact that the long running process that the PCGI wrapper
communicates with is ZServer, not pcgi_publisher.py The upshot of this
difference is that you need to start ZServer before you can use PCGI, since
the PCGI wrapper does not currently know how to activate ZServer. Also you
need to configure ZServer to communicate w/ PCGI, which is normally done by
passing the path to a PCGI info file to the PCGI Server.

>Therefore how to combine ZServer and PCGI? I know ZServer has a PCGI
>channel. Therefore maybe the above scripts should instead be named
>w_zserver and wo_zserver, because you can use pcgi in either case? As
>you can tell, I'm totally confused here.

Clearly we need to improve our documentation, and our installation programs
:-( Note: we haven't yet overhauled the install documentation for Zope 2.
As always, we're open to constructive criticism, suggestions, and
contributions.

-Amos